1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a supporting structure for a planetary gear mechanism.
2. Discussion of the Background
As illustrated in FIG. 6, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-235051 discloses a drive device for a vehicle, in which a planetary gear mechanism 112A is provided as a speed reducer along the power transmission path between a left rear wheel (not shown) and an electric motor 102A which drives the left rear wheel, and a planetary gear mechanism 112B is provided as a speed change gear along the power transmission path between a right rear wheel (not shown) and an electric motor 102B which drives the right rear wheel.
As illustrated in FIG. 7, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-037355 describes a mechanism in which a planetary gear mechanism 212 is provided as a speed reducer along the power transmission path between an electric motor 202 and wheels (not shown), and thus the power from the electric motor 202 is transmitted from a rotor rotation shaft 207 and a sun gear 221 to a major-diameter pinion 226 engaged with the sun gear 221, and a minor-diameter pinion 227 integral with the major-diameter pinion 226. The minor-diameter pinion 227 then rolls along the inner circumference of a fixed ring gear 224 so that reduced rotation can be transmitted from the planetary carrier 223 to the wheels via an output shaft 210.
In the planetary gear mechanisms 112A, 112B described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-235051, one ends of planetary carriers 123A, 123B are respectively supported on a case 111 by bearings 133A, 133B, however a sprag 153 of a one-way clutch 150 is disposed at the other ends, and thus the other ends are not supported on the case 111.
In the planetary gear mechanism 212 described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-037355, one end of the planetary carrier 223 is supported by a double row bearing 234, and the other end is supported by another rotor bearing 233 via the rotor rotation shaft 207.